Brake System

[peyton1115]

New to the forum and was wondering if anyone had any advice for me. I have a 2006 Passat 2.0. As I have seen with several people on here they love VW's hate the companies customer care. I have 27,000miles on my car and within the past few days have heard horrible grinding coming from my rear brakes. Now I work for a Porsche tuner and I had my tech look at it. He said that the rear pads were basically gone and that I may need new rotors. A. does anyone know how I can release the calipers myself without taking the car in for a 275 dollar brake pad job? B. Is no one else angered by the design of the brake system? I talked to two dealerships and they both told me that I can expect to replace the rears two or three times before the fronts need any work. My front pads look brand new and here I am having to replace pads and rotors in the rear. VW has set this up with the sole purpose to cost the buyer money. First they have the electronic parking brake hooked to the rear calipers so you have to pay extra to have them release the calipers. Second, they have designed the car to direct most of the braking effort onto the smaller rear brakes. Thirdly, the rotors on the raer of my car are not even vented. They place all this stress on crappy brake components and then expect you to pay astronimical fees to fix it, oh and did I mention they conviently didn't put brake sensors on the rear, only on the front which obviously aren't even getting used. I apologize for the rant, my post was mostly to find out if anyone knew how to release the calipers but it was also somewhat to vent.

[chrisvw]

This doesn't appear to be the case with my 2006 car. The front wheels get heavily coated in brake dust but the rears are still fairly clean. The brake discs came with very fine grooves machined in. The grooves disappeared on the front after about a week but I can still see them faintly at the rear after 15000 miles.

[twotrees]

Hi you would be better to ge yourself from Ross tech vag com this will do most if not all you won't to do it youer self

[carl s]

I'd have to say my front wheels allways get more brake dust on them than the rears indicating that the fronts are getting far more use than the rears.

[Quatrelle]

In view of your working for a Porsche tuner, I may be teaching you to suck eggs here, and if I am you'll have to forgive me.

I'm thinking you've got a problem unique to your car, and certainly not a design fault. In keeping with what others have stated above, my rear wheels show very little brake dust, the fronts a lot. It's a few years now since I grovelled around under cars, but they all used to be fitted with a brake balancer, specifically designed to stop the rears contributing much to the braking effort in view of weight shift. Maybe ABS has made such things obsolete, so the problem may lie within the ABS system itself, telling the fronts not to work, meaning the rears are doing it all.

Experience has shown that in the UK there are a lot of VW dealers that haven't a clue - maybe it's the same in the US?

Sorry if this is all old news, but the answer must lie somewhere in the amount of brake dust on the wheels...

Best wishes
John

[Perry]

Just a guess but it sounds like it might be the parking brake not releasing properly.

[Quatrelle]

Just a guess but it sounds like it might be the parking brake not releasing properly.Perry - That had occurred to me, but that wouldn't explain the fact that the front pads 'look brand new', and I would have thought if the rears weren't releasing there would be a drop in performance with the drag, especially if they were binding enough to wear the discs as well (glowing in the dark?).

As for the dealers saying the rears (pads and discs!) will wear out two or three times as quick as the fronts....really? Who are they trying to kid?

The rears aren't designed to do much work, hence being smaller and unventilated, as I'm sure you know. The only car I've ever owned with rears as big as the fronts was a rear-engined Renault in the late 60s.

Best wishes
John

[twotrees]

Hi you will find the the thickness on rear and front are not the same and the load sens-er vale which depending on the weight you have in the car weather or not the load mite be equal

[tommyweaves]

I've got a Dec 05 Passat 2.0tdi saloon which has done 50,000 miles. I bought it new so I know its full life history. I've not had to replace any brake pads at all yet, and I have it serviced properly according to the schedule. If a dealer is telling you that the rears will wear out faster than the fronts I'd suggest you go tell him to get some training in basic physics! You've obviously got a problem with the rears binding or something similar.

[twotrees]

THE basic physics! is what that if use the motor way and you use you er gears more the you will get ? mills out of you er pads. One good make of pad es give you 1500 mils the dealer is approximate 10000 all with good discs

[tommyweaves]

No, I'm referring to the fact that front pads will wear faster than rear pads. Unless you drive backwards. OBVIOUSLY. Whether you drive lots of long distance motorway miles or lots of town driving, the wear rate will be similar for both front and rear. Ergo: if your rear friction linings are wearing out 3 times as fast as your fronts then there's something obviously wrong.

[twotrees]

Hi mate if you where the only person driving you er car and you brake wood their be the same force on all disc.

[tommyweaves]

Hi mate if you where the only person driving you er car and you brake wood their be the same force on all disc.
Hi Twotrees, "mate", are you drunk or just yanking my chain?

[twotrees]

HI this is to help other on here but as you know all you are the best to ans er the questions. I don't drink